Thankfully, San Franciscan ambient musician Wes Willenbring doesn’t
produce the kind of limply ethereal sounds you once meditated to that time you
were trying to be more spiritual. On this, his third release, Willenbring
wrests his raw guitar work together with distorting effects and chilling piano
to create a record that’s more 'layered aural dreamscape' than 'soundtrack to Ikea
catalogue'. Tracks like People Disappear Everyday wax and wane, with deeply immersive
silences and striking instrumental work that jolts you back to consciousness. Short,
achingly melancholic numbers pepper the highlight tracks. Most are just long
enough to lose yourself in but Quaaludes presents fifteen minutes of humming
guitar, melting uneasily into a hypnotic composition of warped effects. These
soundscapes are tightly constructed but fluid enough that Weapons Reference Manual feels like a choose-your-own-adventure record; there’s undeniable
emotion behind the dramatic scores and haunting static interludes, but what it
evokes is up to you.
